American Museum of Natural History
Start a Rock Collection
Rocks hold evidence of Earth's past. A three-step guide describes the process of creating a rock collection. It provides a data collection sheet to make notes about each sample.
Discovery Education
School of Rock
Why do rocks break down over time? Learners explore this concept by simulating physical and chemical weathering of different types of rocks. They use an abrasive to demonstrate physical weathering and acid to demonstrate chemical...
Curated OER
Alaska Rock Garden Project
Young environment experts examine the different types of rocks. They create their own rock garden to keep throughout the school year. Although this lesson is written for the Alaskan landscape, a rock garden can be created in almost any...
US Department of Energy
Geothermal Energy
With Earth Day quickly approaching, as well as many science fairs, why not challenge your class to investigate geothermal energy or other renewable energy resources? There are five driving questions explored in depth here, as well as...
BBC
Walking with Dinosaurs
Breath new life into your class's study of dinosaurs with this extensive collection of materials. Offering everything from a printable T-rex mask, word searches, and connect-the-dots activities to informational handouts, hands-on...
K-State Research and Extensions
Field Trip Preparations
Scholars prepare for a field trip to collect rock specimens. They learn how to build proper display boxes, create road logs, and study various geology careers. This is the final chapter in a seven-chapter unit on geology and contains six...
K-State Research and Extensions
The Crusty Earth
Geology rocks — literally! A geology chapter offers eleven activities at four different levels. Scholars enjoy completing hands-on experiments before applying critical thinking skills following a share, process, generalize, apply, and...
Scholastic
Lesson Four: The Earth, Layers of Earth
Get your hands dirty with a set of earth science activities! Class members delve into a hard-boiled egg to find the similarities to the earth's layers, create a papier-mâché model of the earth, craft a simulation of the earth's...
DiscoverE
Bridges, Buildings and Beyond Activity Packet: Grades 3-5
The road to a better understanding of engineering lies with bridges and tunnels. A set of four engaging activities teaches learners about engineering concepts related to construction projects. They perform an experiment to find the...
NOAA
Make Your Own Volcano!
Make a volcano erupt in your own classroom! Young scientists use household and craft materials to model and simulate the eruption of a volcano.
Teach Engineering
Earthquakes Living Lab: Designing for Disaster
Build and design to rock and roll. Pairs research building design in earthquake areas and use computer simulations to see the effects of earthquakes on buildings,. They then sketch and explain a building design that would withstand a...
K-State Research and Extensions
Water
How are maps like fish? They both have scales. The chapter includes six different activities at three different levels. Scholars complete activities using natural resources, learn how to read a map, see how to make a compass rosette,...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
What is the Water Cycle? Activity B
Curious physical scientists follow a lesson on the properties of water with this lesson on distillation. They observe a miniature water cycle model that filters dirty water into clean water. These two lessons combined are an enriching...
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach
Hydrology and Landforms
Three days of erosion exploration await your elementary geologists. Learners begin by examining rivers via Google Earth, then they model water flow in sand, and finally, they identify resulting landforms. This lesson is written...
K-State Research and Extensions
Peanut Butter Geology
Why are there old dinosaur bones in the museum? Because they can't afford new ones! The chapter contains seven hands-on activities at four different levels covering geological eras, dinosaurs, timelines, and statigraphy.
Consortium for Ocean Leadership
Nannofossils Reveal Seafloor Spreading Truth
Spread the word about seafloor spreading! Junior geologists prove Albert Wegener right in an activity that combines data analysis and deep ocean exploration. Learners analyze and graph fossil sample data taken from sites along the...
Science Matters
Spaghetti Fault Model
Does increasing the pressure between two moving plates provide a stabilizing force or create more destruction? The hands-on lesson encourages exploration of strike-split fault models. The sixth lesson in a 20-part series asks scholars to...
US Department of Agriculture
Sink or Float?
Will it sink or will it float? Learners predict the outcome as they drop random objects into a container of water. Then, they keep track of the results and record the data in a t-chart to draw a final conclusion.
US Department of Energy
Solar Distiller
Explore the sun's ability to distill contaminated water with this simple set of classroom experiments. After filling two glass bowls, one with muddy water and the other with salt water, they are covered with plastic wrap and placed in...
Utah LessonPlans
Water, Water Everywhere
Murals are used to represent the various ways we rely on water.
Curated OER
Cookie Paleontologists
Students become cookie paleontologists. In this paleontology lesson, students try to excavate whole chocolate chips from a chocolate chip cookie without breaking the cookie. They use toothpicks and paintbrushes to do it.